"Mired in bureaucracy, irresponsibility, and the mediocrity of its elites": After Publishing a Book on France, Sébastien Laye to Be Ambassador at an AI Conference in Miami

 

Invited to an Atlantico interview, Sébastien Laye explains that his new book is "the chronicle of a country which has let itself be trapped by a technocracy without a compass." 

Des moutons menés par des ânes ? was reviewed by Boulevard Voltaire — in which Jean de Lacoste called it a "brilliant indictment of our out-of-touch élites" — and by la Revue Économique de France; 

Published by Valeurs Ajoutées, Des moutons menés par des ânes ? [Sheep Led by Donkeys?] is a vigorous pamphlet by the French-American economist and entrepreneur Sébastien Laye. Behind this provocative title, the author delivers an uncompromising diagnosis of contemporary France, which he considers mired in bureaucracy, irresponsibility, and the mediocrity of its elites. 

A brutal assessment of French decline 

Sébastien Laye begins with a stark observation: France is sinking into decline, trapped by a rigid and inefficient state system. He denounces the technostructure which, according to the author, has sacrificed industry, energy, and real estate on the altar of an administrative and conformist ideology. 

Apart from that, Sébastien Laye has written an article for the Washington Examiner, Wealth in the Age of AI (Hedge or Harness?). He will serve as both speaker and ambassador at the Family Offices Summit in Miami on November 19-20.

At a time when submission is called “virtue” and fear “prudence,” Sydney Sweeney's simple frankness serves as an act of insurrection

 

Sydney Sweeney, Javier Milei, Charlie Kirk, Cristiano Ronaldo… Faced with wokism, they are no longer apologizing for being free.

In the magazine Causeur, Nicolas Conquer writes about celebrities' new-found courage, with the hope that it will spread to France. The ROF spokesman goes on to make several religious comparisons about the would-be atheists, echoing Kurt Schlichter's observation that "Leftists … are in the grips of a ridiculous pagan religion and all its tenets." (Merci pour le post Instapundit, Sarah.)

These idols are all guilty of the same crime: refusing to apologize for being free. At a time when submission is called “virtue” and fear “prudence,” their simple frankness serves as an act of insurrection. What if, in turn, we all stopped apologizing for being free? 

At first glance, everything seems to set them apart: a Hollywood actress, an eccentric Argentinian economist, a conservative American commentator, and a soccer legend… 

They share a common choice: honesty over submission. Freely and simply, they choose to say what they think and accept the consequences. … 

Showbiz is less entertainment than a pastoral drama. So, seeing idols rebel against the conformism of the masses is quite an event! … 

In French companies where “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” training programs serve as a religious confession, in our schools where LGBT propaganda replaces knowledge, in our media where objectivity is reduced to reciting the progressive catechism. Courage isn't reserved for presidents or celebrities: it's measured by the ability to say “no” when everyone else is saying “Amen” in inclusive language! Today's world rewards emotion, not conviction. It admires those who give in, not those who stand firm.

Radio Courtoisie Talk Show: Serious Challenges to Trump 9 Months Into His Presidency (+ My Crazy Trek in Trying to Get to Paris in Time)

As Donald Trump passes the nine-month point in power, a new chapter of an hour and a half on his accomplishments and plans takes place Wednesday at Radio Courtoisie.

Evelyne Joslain, assistée d’Eric, reçoit :

• Paul Reen, [directeur] des Republicans Overseas France
• Erik Svane, porte-parole des Republicans Overseas France
• Marc Amblard, avocat international
• Daniel Clément, médecin

Thème : « Trump : Sérieux défis à 9 mois de sa présidence »

ÉTIQUETTES : NOUVEAU MONDE S1 TRUMP

Patron d'émission du Libre journal du Nouveau Monde à Radio Courtoisie, Évelyne Joslain est l'auteur d'une poignée de livres sur les États-Unis et l'Occident. Parmi ceux-ci, son chef d'œuvre est paru il y a queques semaines. Voici la revue de livre de La Révolution Culturelle.

• Cliquez sur le lien pour entendre l'émission d'une heure et demie… 

I usually try to avoid personal notes in this matter, but here I cannot avoid it: I don't think anybody can deny that rarely has any person spent so much time and so much money in making it to a talk show. 

Having promised Evelyne Joslain weeks earlier to be present at her Radio Courtoisie talk show in Paris, I had to take two trains (actually, three) via Zürich from my parents' apartment in Switzerland. But there was only a 7-minute stopover between trains in Zürich. When the first train ran 4-5 minutes late — very un-Swiss (but the train had originated in… Milan) — I knew I was in trouble. I only got, running breathlessly, to the platform just as the TGV Lyria set into motion to leave the station. 

Out of breath, I staggered over to the information booth to ask for the next TGV to the French capital, but it turned out that the one I missed by a few seconds (10-15 seconds later, I would have made it) had been the last one of the day. The next one was only the following morning, and CFF (Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses) would pay for my hotel room, but the earliest morning train would arrive in Gare de Lyon at noon on the dot, the very minute the RC show was starting. So I figured a night train to Paris was the best solution. Except that… there are no night trains to Paris. But there is a night train to Amsterdam via Brussels and a couple of German cities. So I decided to board that all-nighter and get off, after eight hours, at Cologne at 5:55 in the morning and switch to a Paris-bound TGV 50 minutes later which would arrive at 10:10. But because I had a cat with me, I was not allowed to join the usual six-berth cabin; I had to take a cabin with one single berth, in other words, buy a first class ticket. Two hours later, I climbed into the night train (which was composed of good ol' carriages from my youth in the 1980s, see photo) and took off for a night that proved uneventful.

With ten minutes' delay, we arrived in Köln at 6:05, and I looked at the signs for the platform that the TGV would be departing. The Paris departure was up there, but — in white, not with the usual green color, and with a distressing X next to it. What did I discover but that the TGV had been canceled. There was no solution now other than getting to French capital by car. Was there a car rental in the vicinity and was it open at this hour? There was, and a helpful German lady duly guided me to a Sixt office a street or two away (which had been open since 6 a.m.), where I was asked if I had a reservation, as every automobile was already rented out. I can hardly describe my feelings when I heard that, They did have a six-seater people mover, and since that was my only option, that was what I rented. Because I would not be returning the car at the place of rental (I briefly considered it), but leaving it in Paris, the price tripled instantly. However, because the woman at the desk was thrilled by Jixie Juny, my feline friend, she did some math conversions and got the price only doubled. (Don't ask, I don't want to think about the price…)

Paris was about 475-500 km away, a drive between five and six hours. Now I took off, and on the Autobahn the Mercedes Benz Vito managed a speed of 180/190 km/hour. After an hour or so (I was pretty stressed out, so I didn't really notice the times), I passed the Belgian border, where the usual drama queens have managed to lower the slow(ness) limit — I mean, the speed limit — from 130 to only 120 km/h, so here I decided to be more careful and speed along l'autoroute at 160 km/h. Several hours later, I was in France, where the speed limit is 130 km/h — unchanged from over 50 years earlier, in spite of all the technological improvements of the past half-century — so there my speedometer rose once more, to 170 km/h. I was still pretty sleepy, so I stopped at a gas station in Belgium (I — yawn — think) to buy half a dozen ice coffees for "fuel" for the rest of the trek. I thought I could make the noon deadline, but there were so many traffic jams and so many road works — especially (as usual) in Belgium — that I was rarely up at the speeds I was hoping for. 

After arriving on le périphérique parisien (long) after 12 noon, I had to do what I thought was the hardest part of the journey, finding a parking space. But it was even harder, because I am not used to the length of a six-seater, and I had to try three different parking spaces before I found one in which the car did indeed fit.  I then ran to Radio Courtoisie — with my cat with me — and headed straight to… the restroom, where I had been holding in since Belgium, it felt like. I joined the others in the RC show studio at 43:34.

Veterans Day in Paris: Pershing Hall and The Lafayette Escadrille Memorial

As a number of expats and French admirers gathered in Pershing Hall to commemorate Veterans Day, Vincent Bourdonneau reminds us of The Lafayette Escadrille Memorial outside Paris…

The Lafayette Escadrille Memorial  The Lafayette Escadrille Memorial commemorates the volunteer American pilots who gave their lives during World War I, under French colors, before the entry of the United States in the War. The Lafayette Escadrille became an active unit of the French Air Service on April 20, 1916, almost a full year before the US Congress declared war on April 6, 1917.

More than 250 American pilots fought with the French Air Service before the United States joined the war, either in existing squadrons with French pilots, or as one of the 38 pilots who flew in the all-American Lafayette Escadrille squadron. The Memorial commemorates the courage and the sacrifice of all these American pilots who came to France before April 1917, collectively called the “Lafayette Flying Corps”. 

   

Le Mémorial de l’Escadrille La Fayette célèbre la mémoire des pilotes américains volontaires qui donnèrent leur vie durant la Première Guerre Mondiale, sous uniforme français, avant l’entrée en guerre des Etats-Unis. En effet, l’Escadrille La Fayette a été créé le 20 avril 1916, soit un an avant la déclaration de guerre par le Congrès américain le 6 avril 1917.

Plus de 250 pilotes américains ont combattu sous drapeau français avant l’entrée en guerres des Etats-Unis, soit dans des unités avec des pilotes français, soit dans l’Escadrille La Fayette, la seule unité composée exclusivement de pilotes américains. Le Mémorial commémore le courage et le sacrifice de tous ces américains venus avant avril 1917, collectivement dénommé le « La Fayette Flying Corps ».

Update: Incidentally, the Lafayette Escadrille formed the basis for the Tony Bill movie Flyboys, with James Franco, Jean Reno, and Jennifer Decker. 

Regarding the common myth that wars are always fought by the poor on behalf of the rich, I remember buying a book about the Lafayette Squadron retorting that its members were overwhelmingly composed of s(ci)ons from rich upper-class families enlisted in posh universities.

At Pershing Hall, Évelyne Joslain and Paul Reen pose in front of
a painting of General John Pershing ("Lafayette, nous voilà")

And over at Evelyne Joslain's Radio Courtoisie, we have 1917-1944: The American Landings — 110 Years in the History of France. 

Useful Idiots Dept.: His TV Star Mother's "love for Russia was real, visceral"; a French writer admits that she "was particularly blind"

A Celebrated French Writer Loved Russia, writes Constant Méheut in the New York Times; War Forced a Reckoning. It is an article that the French people's love with all things Russian, and how it has made them turn a blind eye towards the Kremlin — while unleashing scorn and hatred towards the Yankee nation. 

Regarding "a distinctly French fascination with Russia", I notably remember the mother of the writer interviewed, one historian by the name of Hélène Carrère d’Encausse who was always raving and ranting on French news programs and talk shows about the Russian people and Russian society. The worst part of this is when these useful idiots claim proudly to know better than historians, and that during World War II, Europe — including France itself — was not freed by the U.S. Army but by the Russians.  Right: Go tell that to the Poles, the Balts, and the Hungarians. (Spasibo za Insta-ssylku, tovarishch Sara.)

On Feb. 24, 2022, as Russia invaded Ukraine and Moscow turned overnight into a pariah city, Emmanuel Carrère, one of France’s most acclaimed nonfiction writers, boarded a plane bound for the Russian capital.

 … Mr. Carrère spent 10 days in Moscow, long enough to watch a world collapse around him. New laws punished anyone who dared call the war a war, and his friends scrambled to flee.

Perhaps most disquieting for a man whose passion for Russia once had led him to spend weeks in a backwater 440 miles east of Moscow — an experience he recounted in “My Life as a Russian Novel” — was realizing how many Russians either backed the war or simply looked away.

“Something inside me was shattered, and still is, and my love for Russia has taken a serious blow,” Mr. Carrère said in a recent interview in his Paris loft, its all-white walls lined with rows of books. He noted that all that had once drawn him to Russia — its rich literature, tragic history and larger-than-life personalities — now seemed to have culminated in a brutal war.

“There’s a kind of dizzying depreciation of Russian values,” he said.

This reckoning pulses through his latest book, “Kolkhoze,” released in France in August and slated for U.S. publication next year. A best seller in France and one of four finalists for this year’s Goncourt Prize, the country’s most prestigious literary honor, it is a kind of autobiography that explores Mr. Carrère’s Russian roots and his relationship with his mother, who during her lifetime was France’s leading historian of Russia.

   … His introspective writing about Russia also has held up a mirror to many others in France, beginning with his mother, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse. Her complacency toward the Kremlin, which Mr. Carrère critiques sharply in the book, shows a distinctly French fascination with Russia, shaped by a shared history of revolution, empire and cultural masterpieces.

 … His mother, raised by a Russian-Prussian aristocrat mother and a Georgian immigrant father who spoke Russian to her, was a prolific historian of Russia and a fixture on television debates about the Kremlin. She passed that passion on to her son, taking him on a research trip to Moscow and handing him to read, at just 13, “The Idiot,” Dostoyevsky’s 650-page dive into the Russian soul.

That education gave Mr. Carrère “a feeling that there’s a life that’s more intense” in Russia, he said.

 … His mother, who died in 2023, was particularly blind, he writes in “Kolkhoze”: “Her love for Russia is real, visceral. The tragedy is that it morphed into indulgence for Putin, and for the past 20 years she continuously carried the Kremlin’s message” to successive French presidents, telling them that “Russia is a great country that cannot be judged by our standards and that Putin is a man of peace — provided he is not humiliated, of course.”

“Looking back, one realizes we should have understood much sooner,” Mr. Carrère writes.

But he didn’t, not until Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

 … In Moscow, he saw “this Russia at war take shape,” he said, as belligerent rhetoric drowned out everything else and Kremlin propaganda “was calmly absorbed by quite a number of people.”

 … Georgia is where he began seeing Russia through the prism of colonialism, as a country that had long dominated its smaller neighbors, first through empire, then the Soviet Union. Now it was seeking to reclaim that domination.

“War made me realize it,” he said. “I honestly don’t think I would ever have thought of Georgia as a colonized country before.”

 … The experience unsettled Mr. Carrère. Yet it helped him “see things through the eyes” of Ukrainians, he said, and grasp why Dostoyevsky, with his anti-Western, nationalist bent, is reviled there. Still, he hopes that when the war ends, the reckoning will be more measured.

[The Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko] said the trip, organized by PEN Ukraine, an association of writers, was important to show Mr. Carrère “what the Russian world actually means, what it really brings” behind the “facade of Russian culture.”

 … Since 2022, Mr. Carrère has traveled four times to Georgia and as many to Ukraine. Will he keep writing about Russia? He’s not sure. He said he wanted to find other roots.

“Because a void has opened up,” he wrote in Kometa in late 2023. “Because I loved Russia and, however shocking it may be to say this about an entire people, one can still love some Russians, but one can no longer love Russia.”

 

How Can a Democrat Work for "All the People" If He or She Wants Half of Them Shot in the Head?!

I remember voting day in 1992 (just one single solitary day?!), when Democrat and Republican expats in Paris (six hours ahead of the East Coast), along with a plethora of Frenchmen and foreigners, gathered in a big hall replete with food and drinks and flags and music to see the results coming in late at night. 

And at the end of the night, when Bill Clinton was declared the victor, the head of Republicans Abroad France and Democrats Abroad France joined together to say something I found very touching: "Today, we are all Democrats, today, we are all Republicans."

It has always been an American tradition that the winner of an election, both national and regional, would hold a speech in which he said, basically, that he now intends to work for, and serve, all Americans/all Virginians/all New Yorkers, etc…

The question these past months raises is: 

How long have the Democrats actually ever believed that?

Or does it turn out to be just one huge load of BS?

In Virginia, it transpires that one Jay Jones running for the office of attorney general fantasized not only about putting two bullets in the head of a Republican opponent but watching his children get gunned down as well.

How — how on earth — can an Attorney general defend the rights of "all" Virginians when he wishes to have an opponent, not to mention said opponent's small children (for the love of God), die in a hail of bullets?! What would the state's top law enforcement officer be wishing (openly or in secret) about the latter's supporters? How on Earth does a Democrat like Jay Jones expect to serve if he (or she) hopes (as logic would dictate) that half his (or her) constituents get shot in the head and that their young children — JJ calls 'em "little fascists" — get murdered along with them?!

This comes after the attempt on Donald Trump's life and the glorification of the heroic Luigi Mangione, as well as leftists of all ages and all backgrounds openly celebrating Charlie Kirk's murder while students at his TPUSA booths are routinely being told to "Kill yourselves." How about Charlie and Erika's son and daughter? Are those tiny tots also "little fascists" who should be gunned down like their dad?!

Indeed, writes Luke Rosiak, the "idea that Democrats were functioning with a Mafia-like code of omertà would also implicate Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger."

How do voters expect to have a fair head of government if the governor has nothing but (the utmost) scorn for half the population? (Thanks for the Instalink, Sarah…)

Over in Montana, likewise, a Democrat candidate for Helena city commissioner

made headlines for lobbing threats and wishing a painful cancer death on Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., in an expletive-filled voicemail … before warning the senator not to "meet me on the streets."

 … "Hi, this is Haley McKnight … I hope that one day you get pancreatic cancer, and it spreads throughout your body so fast that they can't even treat you for it."

 … "I hope you die in the street like a dog," McKnight continued. "One day, you're going to live to regret this. I hope that your children never forgive you. I hope that you are infertile. I hope that you manage to never get a boner ever again."

(Whichever subject comes up, in all cases Leftists really cannot stop thinking about sex…)

In The liberals’ license: How the left finds release in an age of rage, written three months before Charlie Kirk's murder (via Ed Driscoll), JONATHAN TURLEY reported that

some on the left are turning to political violence and criminal acts. It is part of the “righteous rage” that many of them see as absolving them from the basic demands not only of civility but of legality.

They are part of a rising class of American Jacobins — bourgeois revolutionaries increasingly prepared to trash everything, from cars to the Constitution.

 … Of course, it is not revolution on the minds of most of these individuals. It is rage.

Rage is the ultimate drug. It offers a release from longstanding social norms — a license to do those things long repressed by individuals who viewed themselves as decent, law-abiding citizens.

 … As intellectuals knock down our laws and Constitution, radicals are pouring into the breach. Political violence and rage rhetoric are becoming more common. Some liberals embraced groups like Antifa, while others shrugged off property damage and violent threats against political opponents. It is the very type of incitement or rage rhetoric that Democrats once accused Trump of fostering in groups like the Proud Boys.

 … The one thing the American Jacobins will not admit is that they like the rage and the release that it brings them. From shoplifting to arson to attempted assassination, the rejection of our legal system brings them freedom to act outside of morality and to take whatever they want.

In Life Behind Communist Lines, Kurt Schlichter explained — in spite of his piece being written a year and a half ago, he got all last week's electoral regions right in his first sentence — that

When you live in a place like California or Northern Virginia or New York or some other blue hellhole, and you are in favor of things like America and freedom, you really are living in enemy territory.

 … Leftists are immune to reason. They are insusceptible to argument. They are in the grips of a ridiculous pagan religion and all its tenets – like that climate change is a thing and that structural racism is a thing and that Trump being a tool of Putin is a thing – are received wisdom. These people embrace it all not because they have been convinced of it but because they want to be part of the Bolshevik Borg. What greater show of solidarity could there be than to publicly announce that you accept something totally ridiculous, like that men can get pregnant? If you will show that you will eagerly sacrifice your self-respect and dignity for the cause, you prove yourself worthy of acceptance.

Back to Matt Margolis: 

In the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination, Democrats are scrambling to rewrite the narrative on political violence. For years, they’ve hammered Republicans over so-called “dangerous rhetoric,” accusing the right of fueling division and threatening democracy itself. But when faced with a Democrat candidate who openly texted about shooting a Republican and harming his children, they turned a blind eye. 

 … Jones’ apparent victory proves (yet again) that Democratic moral posturing on violence evaporates the moment it becomes inconvenient to their electoral interests. 

So: it turns out that if any people are (akin to) Nazis, it's the Leftists.

If anybody is using hate speech, it is the Left.

Who can believe anybody in their right mind on the Left would not want to cheat during elections and lie whenthese drama queens believe, and describe, their opponents to be/as being the scum of the earth? As Dennis Prager famously said, If your opponent is Hitler, why would you not want to cheat if that's what is necessary to defeat a monster like him?! 

Over at Behind the Black (thanks to Instapundit), Robert Zimmerman wants "to highlight one fundamental and truly ugly aspect of [the Antifa and leftist protests] that I think we no longer see because it has become so common."

While it is clear these leftist protesters have nothing positive to propose, it is their hate and anger that stands out above all. All they can do is vent hate, pure and simple. … What is different now is the level of emotional hate exuded by these protesters. They are literally so filled with this venom that they now almost routinely lose control of themselves, resulting in violence and vandalism … that even a decade ago was rare. … All I see is hate. Hate for the right. Hate for debate. Hate pure and simple.

This brings us to the issue of Talking Points.  In the Leftist's mind, the term is used as a sort of false shorthand, simple-minded repetition, a sort of fakery used by dishonest tricksters — to be debunked by the Left. However, when you think about it, what exactly is wrong with talking points? Talking points, for a conservative, are fewer taxes, strong defense, love of country, etc…. Why should that change? Isn't using the same "points" being, ahem, consistent? However, there are talking points that nobody ever seems to mention: what are the talking points of the Left? Aren't they truly the ones that that sound, if anything, fake? The talking points of the left is that (wait for it…) people on the right are… (melodramatic pause…) racists. Isn't that the main one? Also, that they are hypocritical, hate speech spewers, and, yes, tricksters. Tricksters who use… dishonest talking points (!). And let's not forget Nazis and (little) fascists. The Left's talking points are nothing but ad homonyms and insults. (Is it any wonder that I assert that The Leftist Worldview in a Nutshell can be summarized as A World of Deserving Dreamers Vs. Despicable Deplorables?)

Related: •  The Smug Liars' "Screw-You" Party

• Examining the Left's Concept of "Talking Points"

In What Caused Secession and Ergo the Civil War? Was It Slavery and/or States' Rights? Or Wasn't It Rather Something Else — the Election of a Ghastly Republican to the White House?, I quote said Republican's speech from February 1860, before he was nominated to be the newly-found party's standard-bearer. Here is Abraham Lincoln imagining what he would say to a group of Democrats (if only they would listen to him):

when you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers [or… illegal aliens —ed], but nothing like it to [Republicans]. In all your contentions with one another, each of you deems an unconditional condemnation of [Republicanism] as the first thing to be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be an indispensable prerequisite — license, so to speak — among you to be admitted or permitted to speak at all.

Is it any wonder that Ron Hart points out that Democrats Get Their Political Playbook From Lenin, Communism's First Dictator and Mass Murderer?

In The Real Reason for Secularism (For the Left, the Golden Rule and the 10 Commandments turn out to be a major problem), I end the post with these words:

Mark Levin's latest book is called The Democrat Party Hates America.  The truth, as we have seen with the Woke movement, is that leftist scholars and activists hate American institutions, the Left hates American values, leftists hate American history, leftists hate American liberty, leftists abhor the Judeo-Christian religion (because of its Golden Rule and its Ten Commandments), and Democrats have hated Republicans since the movement was born in 1854.

Here, according to Instapundit, is the bottom line:

A Mafia-like code of Omerta.
In the grips of a pagan religion.
Their political playbook from a dictator and a mass murderer.

Know the truth: it will set you free.

Vote — and act — accordingly.